2.1.1 working memory model Flashcards
Who created the working memory model
baddeley and hitch 1974
What is the central executive
The central executive has the overall control and is the key component.
Capacity: limited but processes information from any sensory information.
Responsibilities: monitors information coming in from different sources and decide what to pay attention to and allocates tasks to the slave subsystems
what is the phonological loop
The phonological loop has a limited capacity and deals with auditory processes and preserves the order in which the information arrives.
Baddeley in 1986 added the phonological store which stores auditory information and the articulatory loop which holds words and loops them like an inner voice
describe the visuo spatial sketchpad
Visual/spatial information is stored here and has a limited capacity
logie 1995 added the visual cache Which stores visual data and in a scribe for special relation and record the arrangement of objects
Describe the episodic buffer
The episodic buffer was added in 2000 by baddeley and it is a more general store. It has a limited capacity and integrates the acoustic, visual and spatial information process by other subsystems. It maintains time sequencing and record events that happening and links to the long-term memory
What is the word length effect
The longer it takes to say a word the harder it is to remember and this supports baddeley
what is a dual task performance
if it is a dual task that involves the same store, the task is too difficult. This shows that the capacity of the visuospatial sketch pad is limited as it cannot deal with two tasks at the same time but it can perform to tasks if using different components
evaluate the working memory model
there is support from case studies. For example KF suffered brain damage after a motorcycle accident and he could process visual information but struggled with verbal information. This supports the existence of two separate visual and verbal stores in the short term memory because it would seem like his phonological loop is the only store to have been affected and his visuo spatial sketch pad was still functional. however evidence gathered from case studies can be considered limited because it wouldn’t be right to suggest all peoples memory works in a particular way due to evidence from a single person
There is support from brain scanning studies. For example Smith 1995 use brain scans to show how different areas of the brain are active when doing visual or verbal tasks, suggesting the phonological loop and visuospatial sketch pad are separate systems. This provides support for the subdivisions of the separate visual and verbal stores as they are located in different parts of the brain. In addition brain scans have shown different areas of the brain activated with visual spatial activities providing support for subdivision of the VSS
there are practical applications, for example the model has been argued to be able to be used to help children with ADHD, these children have deficits in working memory and the model can provide practical suggestions for helping these children. For example by breaking down instructions into simple manageable chunks with frequent repetition
however not all aspects of the model a fully understood. For example baddeley Himself said the central executive is the most important and least understood component. For example it has been argued that it has limited capacity but this hasn’t been research properly with any position. It is usually defined as being attention but it is likely to have other components that just haven’t been researched yet. And this is a weakness because it means aspect of the model haven’t been fully explained and further research is needed
